She has attributed her youthful looks to a healthy love life and given hope to millions by saying she had the best sex of her life at 71.

So it is something of a let down to find out that even sex symbol Jane Fonda needs artificial help.

The Barbarella star has revealed she took the male sex hormone testosterone from the age of 70 to boost her libido.

Miss Fonda said it made ‘a huge difference’.

Advising other women of a certain age how to pep up their love lives, three-times married actress, political activist and fitness guru said: ‘Here’s something I haven’t said publicly yet: I discovered testosterone about three years ago, which makes a huge difference if you want to remain sexual and your libido has dropped.

‘Use testosterone, it comes in a gel, pill or patch.’

Earlier this year, Robbie Williams shocked his legions of female fans by admitting he was injecting himself with testosterone to boost his sex drive.

Although testosterone is usually thought of as a male hormone, it is also made by women, but in much smaller amounts.

Levels drop off after the menopause, leading to some doctors prescribing testosterone alongside more traditional hormone replacement therapy.

It is relatively cheap, costing around £50 for six months’ supply and comes in patches, implants and gels.

But a reinvigorated love life can come at a cost.

Miss Fonda, now 73, and in a relationship with music producer Richard Perry, who is four years her junior, told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘I had to stop because it was giving me acne.

‘It’s one thing to have plastic surgery, but it is quite another to have adolescence acne. That is going too far.’

Two years ago, she created envy in millions of bedrooms by telling how she was having the best sex of her life, despite having had spinal surgery and boasting an artificial knee and a titanium hip.

She said: ‘How do I still look good? I owe 30 per cent to genes, 30 per cent to good sex, 30 per cent because of sports and healthy lifestyle with proper nutrition and for the remaining ten per cent, I have to thank my plastic surgeon.

But I’m happier, the sex is better and I understand life better. I don’t want to be young again.’

More recently, she has devoted 50 pages of her new autobiography to explaining how couples can keep the passion alive long after the vigour of their youth has failed.

However, her use of testosterone has remained secret until now.

British experts welcomed the revelation.

Professor John Studd, of the London PMS and Menopause Clinic has been prescribing testosterone for women for 30 years.

He said: ‘It is not just about libido. The benefits include more energy, more self-confidence, better mood and all of those things.’

He added that carefully balancing the dose should remove the risk of side-effects such as acne and excessive bodily or facial hair.

Dr John Stevenson chairman of the charity Women’s Health Concern, said: ‘Jane Fonda clearly thinks there should be no time limit to being sexually active, which is fine. Good for her.’

However, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists warns that the long-term consequences of the treatment are unknown.

THE TRUTH BEHIND TESTOSTERONE

Testosterone can be part of the hormone replacement therapy given to menopausal women.

Gels that are rubbed into the skin are the most popular. But patches, creams and implants are also available.

Topping up levels of the hormone can give a woman in her 50s or 60s the libido of someone half her age, as well as boost energy and mood.

But too high a dose carries the risk of acne and greasy skin and hair.

‘Masculine’ side-effects such as excessive bodily and facial hair and a deepened voice are also possible.

Testosterone pills aren’t given to women but can raise cholesterol, increasing the odds of heart attacks and strokes.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists urges caution when prescribing the libido-boosting treatment to women other than those who have had their ovaries removed.

It advises: ‘Testosterone replacement may be associated with adverse clinical and metabolic side effects and long-term consequences are unknown.

We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of tadalafil 5 mg once-daily treatment on testosteronelevels in patients with erectile dysfunction (ED) accompanied by the metabolic syndrome. A total of 40 men with metabolic syndrome were evaluated for ED in this study. All the patients received 5 mg tadalafil once a day for 3 months. Erectile function was assessed using the five-item version of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) questionnaire. Serum testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinising hormone levels were also evaluated, and blood samples were taken between 08.00 and 10.00 in the fasting state. All participants have three or more criteria of metabolic syndrome. At the end of 3 months, mean testosterone values and IIEF scores showed an improvement from baseline values (from 3.6 ± 0.5 to 5.2 ± 0.3, from 11.3 ± 1.9 to 19 ± 0.8 respectively). After the treatment, serum LH levels were decreased (from 5.6 ± 0.6 to 4.6 ± 0.5). There was significantly difference in terms of baseline testosterone and luteinising hormone values and IIEF scores (p < .05). Based on our findings, we recommend tadalafil 5 mg once daily in those men with erectile dysfunction especially low testosterone levels accompanied by metabolic syndrome.

•Testosterone significantly mediates the relation between cerebellar gray matter and measures of neuroticism.

Abstract

Previous research has found an association between a smaller cerebellar volume and higher levels of neuroticism. The steroid hormone testosterone reduces stress responses and the susceptibility to negative mood. Together with in vitro studies showing a positive effect of testosterone on cerebellar gray matter volumes, we set out to explore the role of testosterone in the relation between cerebellar gray matter and neuroticism. Structural magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired, and indices of neurotic personality traits were assessed by administering the depression and anxiety scale of the revised NEO personality inventory and Gray’s behavioural avoidance in one hundred and forty-nine healthy volunteers between 12 and 27 years of age. Results demonstrated an inverse relation between total brain corrected cerebellar volumes and neurotic personality traits in adolescents and young adults. In males, higher endogenous testosterone levels were associated with lower scores on neurotic personality traits and larger cerebellar gray matter volumes. No such relations were observed in the female participants. Analyses showed that testosterone significantly mediated the relation between male cerebellar gray matter and measures of neuroticism. Our findings on the interrelations between endogenous testosterone, neuroticism and cerebellar morphology provide a cerebellum-oriented framework for the susceptibility to experience negative emotions and mood in adolescence and early adulthood.

A midday nap may help to lower blood pressure, among hypertensive men and women.

In today’s 24/7/365 society, few of us take time to tend to our health and well-being; a midday nap may seem completely elusive. Manolis Kallistratos, from Asklepieion Voula General Hospital (Greece), and colleagues assessed the effect of midday sleep on blood pressure among a group of 386 men and women, average age 61.4 years), with arterial hypertension. The team collected these measurements for all subjects: midday sleep time (in minutes), office blood pressure, 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure, pulse wave velocity, lifestyle habits, body mass index (BMI) and a complete echocardiographic evaluation including left atrial size. After adjusting for confounding factors, the researchers found that midday sleepers had 5% lower average 24 hour ambulatory systolic blood pressure (by 6 mmHg), as compared to patients who did not sleep at all midday. Their average systolic blood pressure readings were 4% lower when they were awake (by 5 mmHg) and 6% lower while they slept at night (by 7 mmHg), as compared to non-midday sleepers. As well, in midday sleepers pulse wave velocity levels were 11% lower and left atrium diameter was 5% smaller. The lead investigator comments that: “midday naps seem to lower blood pressure levels and may probably also decrease the number of required antihypertensive medications.”

People trying to lose weight — or not gain weight — are frequently advised to “lay off the booze.” Although organizations like Weight Watchers offer ways to drink wisely within their plans, alcohol, with seven calories a gram and no compensating nutrients, is commonly thought to derail most efforts at weight control.

After the winter holidays, I often hear people blame alcohol for added pounds, not just from its caloric contribution but also because it can undermine self-control and stimulate the appetite and desire for fattening foods.

Yet you probably know people who routinely drink wine with dinner, or a cocktail before it, and never put on an unwanted pound. Given that moderate drinkers tend to live longer than teetotalers, I’d love a glass of wine or a beer with dinner if I could do so without gaining, so I looked into what science has to say about alcohol’s influence on weight.

Despite thousands of studies spanning decades, I discovered that alcohol remains one of the most controversial and confusing topics for people concerned about controlling their weight.

I plowed through more than two dozen research reports, many with conflicting findings on the relationship between alcohol and weight, and finally found a thorough review of the science that can help people determine whether drinking might be compatible with effective weight management.

The review, published in 2015 in Current Obesity Reports, was prepared by Gregory Traversy and Jean-Philippe Chaput of the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Ottawa, Ontario.

The reviewers first examined so-called cross-sectional studies, studies that assessed links between alcohol intake and body mass index among large groups of people at a given moment in time. The most common finding was that, in men on average, drinking was “not associated” with weight, whereas among women, drinking either did not affect weight or was actually associated with a lower body weight than among nondrinkers.

Their summary of the findings: Most such studies showed that “frequent light to moderate alcohol intake” — at most two drinks a day for men, one for women — “does not seem to be associated with obesity risk.” However, binge drinking (consuming five or more drinks on an occasion) and heavy drinking (more than four drinks in a day for men, or more than three for women) were linked to an increased risk of obesity and an expanding waistline. And in a departure from most of the other findings, some of the research indicated that for adolescents and (alas) older adults, alcohol in any amount may “promote overweight and a higher body fat percentage.”

Prospective studies, which are generally considered to be more rigorous than cross-sectional studies and which follow groups of people over time, in this case from several months to 20 years, had varied results and produced “no clear picture” of the relationship between alcohol and weight. Several found either no relationship or a negative relationship, at least in women, while others found that men who drank tended to risk becoming obese, especially if they were beer drinkers.

The conclusion from the most recent such studies: While heavy drinkers risked gaining weight, “light to moderate alcohol intake is not associated with weight gain or changes in waist circumference.”

The studies Dr. Chaput ranked as “most reliable” and “providing the strongest evidence” were controlled experiments in which people were randomly assigned to consume given amounts of alcohol under monitored conditions. One such study found that drinking two glasses of red wine with dinner daily for six weeks did not result in weight gain or a greater percentage of body fat in 14 men, when compared with the same diet and exercise regimen without alcohol. A similar study among 20 overweight, sedentary women found no meaningful change in weight after 10 weeks of consuming a glass of wine five times a week.

However, the experimental studies were small and the “intervention periods” were short. Dr. Chaput noted that even a very small weight gain over the course of 10 weeks can add up to a lot of extra pounds in five years unless there is a compensating reduction in food intake or increase in physical activity.

Unlike protein, fats and carbohydrates, alcohol is a toxic substance that is not stored in the body. Alcohol calories are used for fuel, thus decreasing the body’s use of other sources of calories. That means people who drink must eat less or exercise more to maintain their weight.

Dr. Chaput said he is able to keep from gaining weight and body fat despite consuming “about 15 drinks a week” by eating a healthy diet, exercising daily and monitoring his weight regularly.

Big differences in drinking patterns between men and women influence the findings of alcohol’s effects on weight, he said. “Men are more likely to binge drink and to drink beer and spirits, whereas women mostly drink wine and are more likely than men to compensate for extra calories consumed as alcohol.”

Genetics are also a factor, Dr. Chaput said, suggesting that alcohol can be more of a problem among people genetically prone to excessive weight gain. “People who are overweight to begin with are more likely to gain weight if they increase their alcohol intake,” he said.

Furthermore, as I and countless others have found, alcohol has a “disinhibiting” effect and can stimulate people to eat more when food is readily available. “The extra calories taken in with alcohol are stored as fat,” he reminded drinkers.

Here’s the bottom line: Everyone is different. The studies cited above average the results among groups of people and thus gloss over individual differences. Even when two people start out weighing the same and eat, drink and exercise the same amount, adding alcohol to the mix can have different consequences.

The critical ingredient is self-monitoring: weighing yourself regularly, even daily, at the same time of day and under the same circumstances. If you’re a moderate drinker and find yourself gradually putting on weight, try cutting down on, or cutting out, alcohol for a few months to see if you lose, gain or stay the same.

Or, if you’re holding off on drinking but gradually gaining weight and have no medical or personal reason to abstain from alcohol, you might try having a glass of wine on most days to see if your weight stabilizes or even drops slightly over the coming months.

You might also consult a reliable source on the sometimes surprising differences in calorie content among similar alcoholic drinks. The Center for Science in the Public Interest recently published such a list, available at http://www.nutritionaction.com. Search for “Which alcoholic beverages have the most calories?” While you’ll find no difference in calories between white and red wines, depending on the brand, 12 ounces of beer can range from 55 to 320 calories.

Obese men commonly have reductions in circulating testosterone and report symptoms consistent with androgen deficiency. We hypothesized that testosterone treatment improves constitutional and sexual symptoms over and above the effects of weight loss alone.

Methods:

We conducted a pre-specified analysis of a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial at a tertiary referral center. About 100 obese men (body mass index (BMI)30kgm−2) with a repeated total testosterone level 12nmoll−1 and a median age of 53 years (interquartile range 47–60) receiving 10 weeks of a very-low-energy diet (VLED) followed by 46 weeks of weight maintenance were randomly assigned at baseline to 56 weeks of intramuscular testosterone undecanoate (n=49, cases) or matching placebo (n=51, controls). Pre-specified outcomes were the between-group differences in Aging Male Symptoms scale (AMS) and international index of erectile function (IIEF-5) questionnaires.

Results:

Eighty-two men completed the study. At study end, cases showed significant symptomatic improvement in AMS score, compared with controls, and improvement was more marked in men with more severe baseline symptoms (mean adjusted difference (MAD) per unit of change in AMS score −0.34 (95% confidence interval (CI) −0.65, −0.02), P=0.04). This corresponds to improvements of 11%and 20% from baseline scores of 40 and 60, respectively, with higher scores denoting more severe symptoms. Men with erectile dysfunction (IIEF-520) had improved erectile function with testosterone treatment. Cases and controls lost the same weight after VLED (testosterone −12.0kg; placebo −13.5kg, P=0.40) and maintained this at study end (testosterone −11.4kg; placebo −10.9kg, P=0.80). The improvement in AMS following VLED was not different between the groups (−0.05 (95% CI −0.28, 0.17), P=0.65).

Conclusions:

In otherwise healthy obese men with mild to moderate symptoms and modest reductions in testosterone levels, testosterone treatment improved androgen deficiency symptoms over and above the improvement associated with weight loss alone, and more severely symptomatic men achieved a greater benefit.

WHAT VITAMIN DO WE need in amounts up to 25 times higher than the government recommends for us to be healthy?

What vitamin deficiency affects over half of the population, is almost never diagnosed, and has been linked to many cancers, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, depression, fibromyalgia, chronic muscle pain, bone loss, and autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis?

What vitamin is almost totally absent from our food supply?

What vitamin is the hidden cause of so much suffering that is so easy to treat?

The answer to all of these questions is vitamin D.

Over the last 10 years of my practice, my focus has been to discover what the body needs to function optimally. And I have become more interested in the role of specific nutrients as the years have passed.

Two recent studies in The Journal of Pediatrics found that 70 percent of American kids aren’t getting enough vitamin D, and this puts them at higher risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and lower levels of good cholesterol. Low vitamin D levels also may increase a child’s risk of developing heart disease later in life.

Overall, 7.6 million, or 9 percent, of American children were vitamin D deficient, and another 50.8 million, or 61 percent, had insufficient levels of this important vitamin in their blood.

Over the last 5 years, I have tested almost every patient in my practice for vitamin D deficiency, and I have been shocked by the results. What’s even more amazing is what happens when my patients’ vitamin D status reaches optimal levels. Having witnessed these changes, there’s no doubt in my mind: vitamin D is an incredible asset to your health.

That is why in today’s blog I want to explain the importance of this essential vitamin and give you 6 tips on how to optimize your vitamin D levels.

Let’s start by looking at the massive impact vitamin D has on the health and function of every cell and gene in your body.

How Vitamin D Regulates Your Cells and Genes

Vitamin D has a huge impact on the health and function of your cells. It reduces cellular growth (which promotes cancer) and improves cell differentiation (which puts cells into an anti-cancer state). That makes vitamin D one of the most potent cancer inhibitors — and explains why vitamin D deficiency has been linked to colon, prostate, breast, and ovarian cancer.

But what’s even more fascinating is how vitamin D regulates and controls genes.

It acts on a cellular docking station ,called a receptor, that then sends messages to our genes. That’s how vitamin D controls so many different functions – from preventing cancer, reducing inflammation, boosting mood, easing muscle aches and fibromyalgia, and building bones.

These are just a few examples of the power of vitamin D. When we don’t get enough it impacts every area of our biology, because it affects the way our cells and genes function. And many of us are deficient for one simple reason …

For example, one study found that vitamin D supplementation could reduce the risk of getting type 1 diabetes by 80 percent.

Your body makes vitamin D when it’s exposed to sunlight. In fact, 80 to 100 percent of the vitamin D we need comes from the sun. The sun exposure that makes our skin a bit red (called 1 minimum erythemal dose) produces the equivalent of 10,000 to 25,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D in our bodies.

The problem is that most of us aren’t exposed to enough sunlight.

Overuse of sunscreen is one reason. While these product help protect against skin cancer – they also block a whopping 97 percent of your body’s vitamin D production.

If you live in a northern climate, you’re not getting enough sun (and therefore vitamin D), especially during winter. And you’re probably not eating enough of the few natural dietary sources of vitamin D: fatty wild fish like mackerel, herring, and cod liver oil.

Plus, aging skin produces less vitamin D — the average 70 year-old person creates only 25 percent of the vitamin D that a 20 year-old does. Skin color makes a difference, too. People with dark skin also produce less vitamin D. And I’ve seen very severe deficiencies in Orthodox Jews and Muslims who keep themselves covered all the time.

With all these causes of vitamin D deficiency, you can see why supplementing with enough of this vitamin is so important. Unfortunately, you aren’t really being told the right amount of vitamin D to take.

The government recommends 200 to 600 IU of vitamin D a day. This is the amount you need to prevent rickets, a disease caused by vitamin D deficiency. But the real question is: How much vitamin D do we need for OPTIMAL health? How much do we need to prevent autoimmune diseases, high blood pressure, fibromyalgia, depression, osteoporosis, and even cancer?

The answer is: Much more than you think.

Recent research by vitamin D pioneer Dr. Michael Holick, Professor of Medicine, Physiology, and Dermatology at Boston University School of Medicine, recommends intakes of up to 2,000 IU a day — or enough to keep blood levels of 25 hydroxy vitamin D at between 75 to 125 nmol/L (nanomoles per liter). That may sound high, but it’s still safe: Lifeguards have levels of 250 nmol/L without toxicity.

Our government currently recommends 2,000 IU as the upper limit for vitamin D — but even that may not be high enough for our sun-deprived population! In countries where sun exposure provides the equivalent of 10,000 IU a day and people have vitamin D blood levels of 105 to 163 nmol/L, autoimmune diseases (like multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus) are uncommon.

Don’t be scared that amounts that high are toxic: One study of healthy young men receiving 10,000 IU of vitamin D for 20 weeks showed no toxicity.

The question that remains is: How can you get the right amounts of vitamin D?

6 Tips for Getting the Right Amount of Vitamin D

Unless you’re spending all your time at the beach, eating 30 ounces of wild salmon a day, or downing 10 tablespoons of cod liver oil a day, supplementing with vitamin D is essential. The exact amount needed to get your blood levels to the optimal range (100 to160 nmol/L) will vary depending on your age, how far north you live, how much time you spend in the sun, and even the time of the year. But once you reach optimal levels, you’ll be amazed at the results.

For example, one study found that vitamin D supplementation could reduce the risk of getting type 1 diabetes by 80 percent. In the Nurses’ Health Study (a study of more than 130,000 nurses over 3 decades), vitamin D supplementation reduced the risk of multiple sclerosis by 40 percent.

I’ve seen many patients with chronic muscle aches and pains and fibromyalgia who are vitamin D deficient – a phenomenon that’s been documented in studies. Their symptoms improve when they are treated with vitamin D.

Finally, vitamin D has been shown to help prevent and treat osteoporosis. In fact, it’s even more important than calcium. That’s because your body needs vitamin D to be able to properly absorb calcium. Without adequate levels of vitamin D, the intestine absorbs only 10 to 15 percent of dietary calcium. Research shows that the bone-protective benefits of vitamin D keep increasing with the dose.

So here is my advice for getting optimal levels of vitamin D:

1. Get tested for 25 OH vitamin D. The current ranges for “normal” are 25 to 137 nmol/L or 10 to 55 ng/ml. These are fine if you want to prevent rickets – but NOT for optimal health. In that case, the range should be 100 to 160 nmol/L or 40 to 65 ng/ml. In the future, we may raise this “optimal” level even higher.2. Take the right type of vitamin D. The only active form of vitamin D is vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). Look for this type. Many vitamins and prescriptions of vitamin D have vitamin D2 – which is not biologically active.3. Take the right amount of vitamin D. If you have a deficiency, you should correct it with 5,000 to 10,000 IU of vitamin D3 a day for 3 months — but only under a doctor’s supervision. For maintenance, take 2,000 to 4,000 IU a day of vitamin D3. Some people may need higher doses over the long run to maintain optimal levels because of differences in vitamin D receptors, living in northern latitudes, indoor living, or skin color.4. Monitor your vitamin D status until you are in the optimal range. If you are taking high doses (10,000 IU a day) your doctor must also check your calcium, phosphorous, and parathyroid hormone levels every 3 months.5. Remember that it takes up to 6 to 10 months to “fill up the tank” for vitamin D if you’re deficient. Once this occurs, you can lower the dose to the maintenance dose of 2,000 to 4,000 units a day.6. Try to eat dietary sources of vitamin D. These include:• Fish liver oils, such as cod liver oil. One tablespoon (15 ml) = 1,360 IU of vitamin D• Cooked wild salmon. (3.5) ounces = 360 IU of vitamin D• Cooked mackerel. (3.5) ounces = 345 IU of vitamin D• Sardines, canned in oil, drained. (1.75) ounces = 250 IU of vitamin D• One whole egg = (20) IU of vitamin D

You can now see why I feel so passionately about vitamin D. This vitamin is critical for good health. So start aiming for optimal levels – and watch how your health improves.